Liberal bias confirmed

February 14th, 2011 in Opinion Free Press

The Free Press editorial page for years has been among the judges for the Media Research Center's annual compilation of the most blatant liberal bias in the news media. The recently announced "winners" of those dubious "honors" confirm again that the American people have good reason to believe there is a pervasive liberal bent in the mainstream media.

Here are a few of the quotes the Media Research Center compiled in 2010 (with the rest available on its website, mrc.org):

* After a guest pointed out that radical Muslims kill people in expectation of rewards in heaven, Tavis Smiley, a host on a PBS show, remarked, "But Christians do that every single day in this country." He cited the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado - though the killers' motives were never thought to be related to Christianity.

* New York Times columnist Frank Rich likened opponents of ObamaCare socialized medicine to Nazis after some Democrat congressmen alleged they were subjected to racial slurs around the time of the ObamaCare vote. But no one produced evidence that the slurs took place, which is highly unusual since the incident supposedly happened outside the Capitol, with lots of news media and hundreds of people nearby. Another Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, specifically denied hearing racial slurs.

* After Democrats had huge losses in the 2010 midterms, CNN and MSNBC contributor Bill Press used a vulgarity to refer to voters, and called them "a bunch of idiots."

* In one of the strangest remarks documented by the MRC, Terry Moran of ABC News declared, "The stimulus worked" and labeled it one of the Obama administration's "major accomplishments." In fact, the $862 billion stimulus massively added to our national debt, and the money generally went toward government jobs rather than the private-sector jobs that the president had said the money would create. Unemployment was not supposed to exceed 8 percent if the stimulus passed, but it soon rose to nearly 10 percent and is still a painful 9 percent today.

* MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said the grass-roots tea party movement supports "hanging union organizers" and wants to "end this democracy." In reality, it's a group of patriotic, peaceful Americans who are alarmed by the threat to our economy of back-breaking debt and limitless government spending, and by the erosion of our liberties through big new programs such as ObamaCare.

* Former New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse called Arizona a "police state" after it enacted a sensible law to stem the costly tide of illegal aliens into the state.

* Highlighting the media's hostility toward former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, MSNBC's Chris Matthews suggested she is illiterate. "I'm dead serious about this," he said. "Have you ever seen her reading words on a piece of paper?"

* Sarah Spitz, who often contributes pieces to National Public Radio, said that if she saw conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh dying, she would "laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out."

It is naive to think that journalists don't have personal views on politics. But at least among those who claim to present the news impartially, it is appalling that many seem comfortable promoting a political agenda.